Takamura is undoubtedly one of Japan's most distinguished manufacturers of handmade stainless steel knives. The forge is located in the city of Echizen (Takefu) in western Japan, where it has been since World War II. Today, the work is led by three sons who represent the third generation of blacksmiths in the Takamura family. The father, now 80 years old, is still active in production, and as we can see in the pictures, he hot-forges the blades with immense precision. Takamura's philosophy is simple: only the best is good enough. This approach permeates all aspects of production, from sourcing steel and wood to hot forging, heat treatment, and sharpening. For this reason, all steps are carried out by Takamura themselves. No parts of the production are outsourced to subcontractors, which is otherwise very common among Japanese blacksmiths. Takamura takes the accuracy of details very seriously, and nothing is left to chance. The result is a knife that is completely uncompromising in its execution, and anyone who has ever cut with a Takamura knife recognizes its astonishing performance.
”But the knife is not the star. The chef is not the star either, not even the food is the star. It´s the satisfaction of the person eating the food that really matters. Satisfaction is the real star.”
/Terakazu Takamura, 2015-04-08.
When we visit Takamura, the father and his two sons, Hideo and Terukazu, proudly show us their forge. They explain in detail how they hot-forge all their blades to achieve strong blades that retain their sharpness for a long time. Far from all quality knife manufacturers hot-forge their blades. Stamped or cold-hammered blades can also be good, but to bring out the finest properties of steel, one needs to heat and hammer out the blade by hand. Takamura enthusiastically talks about all aspects of production, and they are not particularly worried that the secrets of their manufacturing process will leak to competitors. It is simply impossible to copy their work without dedicating a lifetime of hard work and total devotion to blacksmithing.